Steering apparatus for vessels.



1. s. GRAHAM.

STEERING APPARATUS FOR VESSELS.

APPLICATION FILED APR. 1-0: I918.

f 1,395,732, Patented Feb. 1919.

2 SHEETSSHEET I.

. 1.,3. GRAHAM. STEERING APPARATUS FDR VESSELS. APPLICATIQN FILED APR-.10, 19w.

Patentd Feb. 25, 19l9.

,ZSHEETS-SHEET 2 JOHN srssoncnnneivn or THE UNITED STATES NAVY.

'purposes of lubrication, inspection, or reppair.

My lnvention Wlll be STEERING APPARATUS FOR VESSELS.

Specification of Letters Patent; Patented 25,1919.

. Applicati'onfiled April 10, 1918. Seria1No'.227,709.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, JOHN S. GRAHAM,

-United States Navy, ;a citizen of the United States, stationed onboard'U. S. S. Vicksburg, haveinvented certain new and usefulImprovements in Steering Apparatus for Vessels; andI do herebydeclarethe following to be a full, clear, andexact description oftheinvention, such as'will enable others skilled in theart to'which itappertains to 1 -make and use the same.

.1.1My invention relates to improvements in steering apparatus formar1nevessels and it is intended more partlcularly to provide "insteadof the ordinary vertically disposed steeringrudder now generally usedfor such purposes a pair of independently operable rudders located onopposite sides of the vessel preferably near the stern, and soarranged-that either or bothof the rudders may be swung from the inertto'the opera- :tive position, or vice versa and in which .the bearingsfor the rudder are located within the interiorv of thevessel so thatthey may be at all times readily accessible-for 7 more fully understoodafter reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

Figure l is a diagram showing one side of the'stern of a vessel with therudder on that sideshown in full lines in the inert position, and indotted lines in the full-rudder position.

a section along theline 2'-2 of Fig. 1, but showing both rudders in fulllines in the inert position, and one of the rudders in "dotted'lines inthe full rudder position.

. Fig- 3 shows a section along thebroken line 3-3 of Fig. 2, and lookingin the direction of the arrows.

- Fig. 4 shows a section along the line -l4 of .Fig. 3, andlooking'inthe direction of Y the shipsdynsimos and the arrows. i

Fig. 5 is a detail showlng a perspective ofone "of the rudderspartlybroken away; oWs:-

and

l' to 4- iAf'representsthe-hull of a vessel, and B --r}epresents apropeller mounted on=the oro v:Fig. 2 shows a similardiagram showingpeller shaft *C As 'my invention has noth i-ng', tofdo with; propellingmechanism, I have shown thee-propeller in the simplest form, but one ormore propellers may be used and they. may be arranged in any desiredorconvenient way since the location -and-operat1on of thepropeller doesnot materiaIIy-afi'ectthe functioning of the steering rudders. Y

The rudders D and D have theirblades d mounted at any suitable angle onthe shaft d, thesblades of the opposite rudders being rever'selydisposed as shown in Figs. 2and 4.

-I have shown the rudder blades as made integral with the rudder shafts,but the bladesmay be rigidly attached thereto if.

- desired.

The rudder; shafts (Z are i journaled in suitable bearings E mountedinside of the .vessel ata suitablejdistanc'e below the water line.,The-bearings may ;be .partof or secured to any suitable bed plate, suchas F,

whereby a strongand rigid support for said bearings-is. secured.

The rudder shafts 03 may be turned in any 1 ently operated-mechanism forrotating the rudder shaft. Since it will only be necesoutmechanismfor-automatically cutting 0H theelectriccurrent when the worm sector Gis'turned from the position i for throwing the rudder to the inert[position to that for throwing the rudder to the full rudder positionsuch out-off mechanism'being indicated diagrammatically at L in Figs 3,the electric circuit being shown at -M controlled by the A'SWltCh N.

This electric-circuit may be connectedto cut-out may be ,used.

The operation o -Qthe device as fol- I Referring first .to 'Figs. 1 to4, in which convenient Way, as by means ofthe Worm segment G' engagingthe worm H, on the shaft 1, =dri-ven-by the electric motor K.' Eachrudder-should have its own-independany suitable; electric f then-rudderwhen in the inert position is raisedwith :its, longitudinal axis in thea vertical plane, :and yvhen in the full; ,rudder positionhas its:longitudinal iaxis in the horizontal =pl2t1'18,'it Wlllfb6 seen thatwhen in the raised pQsi-tion the pressure of the water i depending uponthe inert position. ever,

will act on the edge of the rudder and very little turning efiect willbe produced; while if the rudder be swung to the full rudder position,shown in dotted lines in Figs. 1 and 2, the front surface of the bladewill engage the. water with the result that there will be considerableturning effect.

To use what is known as a smaller helm the rudder may be turned to someintermediate position; the fineness of the helm the nearness with whichthe rudder approaches the inert position shown in full lines in Figs. 1and 2.

If desired, both rudders may be thrown to the full rudder, or any otheroperative position, in which case the two would serve as more or less'ofa brake, tending to retard the speed of the vessel and will be'ofassistance in stopping the vessel in a shorter lengththan would bepracticable with the stern rudder now generally in use. The rudders maybe set at any desired angle to the rudder shaft, but it may be moreconvenient to make this angle conform as nearly as practicable to thesides of the ship so that the rudder may be as much as possible out ofthe way when in Some clearness, howwill be "desired since when therudder turns, its longitudinal axis follows the surface of' a cone,while the portions at each side of such axis are also swung forward oraway from the vessel side, according to the direction of movement.

To avoid as much as practicable the protrusion of the rudders when inthe inert position, part of they are preferably located at that thestern of the vessel where the hull slopes forward and outward, as shownin Fig. 2.

If the rudder shaft d is arranged so that it could be rotated through360 there would be two inert'positions for the rudder, 180 apart, andtwo positions for full rudder, also 180 apart, and each 90 from theposition for the inert rudder; but since the maximum is secured byrotation of 90 only, it would only be necessary to provide for therotation of the rudder shaft d through 90, as indicated in Figs. 1 and2.

I prefer to have the rudder elevated when 'in the inert position becausethe weight of the rudder will tend to help the steering engine in movingthe rudder to the operative position; and to restore the rudder to theinert position the pressure of the water will tend to assist thesteering engine to overcome the weight of the rudder.

If, however, it be found more convenient or desirable to arrange theapparatus so that the rudder-shall be in the inert position whenlowered, and in the operative position when raised, the parts may bearranged as shown' in Fig. 6, in which the rudder is shown in thelowered and inert a street car.

hull of the vessel instead of in rear thereof, 7

they will not be so apt to be wrenched from their bearings, or injuredby heavy seas striking the vessel transversely. Thus the principal causeof injury to the steering mechanism of vessels will be in alarge measureavoided. Furthermore the bearings for the rudder shaft and the mechanismfor operating the samewill all be located inside of the vessel andcan beread ily inspected at any time and kept properly lubricated, or may beaccessible for repairs whenever the same become necessar It will also beevident that it wil not re- 7 quire the same power'to swing the rudderabout its pivot, as is thecase with the ordinary stern rudder of aship.- Furthermore, as-has already been referred to, the weight of theruddermay be caused to assist the engine to throw the rudder from theinert positlon to the operative position, while the pressure of thewater will tend to assist the engine to restore the rudder to theinitial or raised position. Again, the stern of the vessel will not bekicked laterally as'occurs at present when the rudder is put oversharply.

There should preferably be apparatus for controlling the rudders locatedon the bridge of the ship as well as the control for each motor or groupof motors on each side of the ship. I do not claim any particularinvention in this electric control, for many well known apparati mightbe used for this purpose, such, for instance, as the control system on amotormans platform of It will be obvious also that signaling apparatusshould be provided to indicate on the bridge the position'of the rudderor rudders, but electric signaling apparatus are well known and I'do'notclaim such apparatus as a part of my present invention.

By the use of the herein described construction a cheaper and strongersteering apparatus is secured which is less apt to be injured by theforce of the waves," and in which the operative part-s can be moreconveniently overhauled, than with the steering mechanism now generallyin use.-

It will be obvious that various modifications -1night be made in theheroin described apparatus, and in the construction, combination andarrangement of parts which could be used without departing from thespirit of my invention, and I do not mean to limit the invention to suchdetails unless particularly pointed out in the claims.

Having thus described my invention what I claim and desire to secure byLetters Patent of the United States is 1. Steering apparatus for marinevessels, comprising a pair of shafts journaled 'in the hull of thevessel and projecting outward therefrom, a rudder blade securely mountedon each shaft at an angle thereto, rigid bearings carried by the vesselfor said shafts, and means for independently rotating each of saidrudder shafts in said bearings, substantially as described.

2. Steering apparatus for marine vessels, comprising a pair of shafts journaled in the hull of the vessel and projecting outward therefrom, arudder blade securelymounted on each shaft at an angle thereto, rigidbearings carried by the vessel for said shafts, a pair of electricmotors, and gearing driven by each motor for independently rotating thecorresponding rudder shaft, substantially as described.

3. Steering apparatus for marine vessels, comprising a pair of shafts journaled in the hull of the vessel and projecting outward therefrom, arudder blade securely mounted on each shaft, the blades on oppositeshafts being outwardly inclined in reverse directions, rigid bearingscarried by the vessel for said shafts, and means for independentlyrotating each of said rudder shafts in said bearings, substantially asdescribed.

4. Steering apparatus for marine vessels, comprising a pair of shaftsjournaled in the hull of the vessel and projecting outward therefrom, arudder blade securely mounted on each shaft, the blades on oppositeshafts being outwardly inclined in reverse directions, rigid bearingscarried by the vessel for said shafts, a pair of electric motors, andgearing driven by each motor for independently rotating thecorresponding rudder shaft, substantially as described.

5. Steering apparatus for marine vessels, comprising a pair of shaftsjournaled in the hull of the vessel and projecting outward therefrom, arudder blade securely mounted on each shaft at an angle thereto, rigidbearings carried by the vessel for said shafts, a pair of electricmotors, and gearing driven by each motor for independently rotating thecorresponding rudder shaft with an automatic cut-out controlled by therotation of each rudder shaft for cutting ofl the electric current whensaid rudder shaft has been turned through a predetermined angle,substantially as described. 1

6. Steering apparatus for marine Vessels, comprising a pair of shaftsjournaled in the hull of the vessel and projecting outward therefrom, arudder blade securely mounted. on each shaft, the blades on oppositeshafts being outwardly inclined in reverse directions, rigid bearingscarried by the vessel for said shafts, a pair of electric motors, andgearing driven by each motor for independently rotating thecorresponding rudder shaft, with an automatic cut-out controlled by therotation of each rudder shaft for cutting off the electric current whensaid rudder shaft has been turned through a predetermined angle,substantially as described.

7. Steering apparatus for'marine vessels, comprising a plurality ofoppositely disposed shafts journaled in the hull of the vessel andprojecting outward therefrom, a rudder blade securely mounted on eachshaft at an angle thereto, rigid bearings carried by the vessel for saidshafts, and means for independently rotating each of said rudder shaftsin said bearings, substantially as described.

8. Steering apparatus for marine vessels,

comprising a plurality of oppositely dis-f posed shafts journaled in thehull of the vessel and projecting outward therefrom, a rudder bladesecurely mounted on each shaft at an angle thereto, rigid bearingscarried by the vessel for said shafts, a pair of electrio motors, andgearing driven by each motor for independently rotating thecorresponding rudder shaft, substantially as de.- scribed.

9. Steering apparatus for marine vessels, comprising a pair of shaftsjournaled in the hull of the vessel and having their axesin a verticalplane transverse to the longitudinal axis of the vessel, a rudder bladesecurely mounted on each shaft at an angle thereto, rigid bearingscarried by the vessel for said shaft, and means for independentlyrotating each of said rudder shafts in said bearings, substantially asdescribed.

In testimony whereof I aflix my signature.

JOHN SISSON GRAHAM.

Copies 01 this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressingthe Commissioner of Patents,

Washington, D. G.

